Monday, April 16, 2012

11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you.

There once was a boy named
Jack whose family was very poor. His father had died and he and his mother
lived alone on their small farm. But the crops had failed and Jack and his mom
had only one choice left: they’d have to sell their cow so they could get
enough money to buy food and seed for the next season.

So Jack’s mom sent him to
market and Jack, like a good boy, made his way to town. But along the way he
met an old man by the side of the road. “Beans,
beans, magic beans!” the man cried. Jack was curious. “What do these beans do?” he asked. “Ah, plant these beans,” the man replied, “and they will grow into a huge vine that will rise to a massive height
and take you to the giant’s castle where he holds the goose that lays the
golden eggs.” Golden eggs! Well that was just the thing for Jack. If he
could get those golden eggs then he and his mom would be free of their
troubles.

So Jack made the trade – his
cow for the old man’s beans. Whistling happily Jack returned home and proudly
showed his mom the beans he had obtained in exchange for the cow. But Jack’s
mom – as you may recall – was none too pleased with her son. “You foolish boy,” she declared. “Those aren’t magic beans – that old man has
fooled you and now we have nothing left either to eat or to plant in the
spring!”

Jack was grieved that his mom
was unhappy with him – for he was a good boy. So what did Jack do? He
determined to put those beans to the test. Late that night, when the full moon
was shining on their farm, Jack went out and planted the beans, watered them,
and then returned to bed. “Perhaps now my
mom will see that these beans really were magic.”

Early the next morning,
before his mom was awake, Jack got up, put on his clothes, and ran outside to
check on his beans. Normally, of course, this would be an exercise in futility
– beans don’t grow overnight – but these were magic beans. And there before
Jack’s eyes, reaching high up into the sky, was the biggest bean stock Jack, or
anyone else, had ever seen. It soared up into the clouds, far out of Jack’s
sight. Jack had been right – they were magic beans.

And how did Jack know they
were magic beans? He planted them, he put them to the test.

Brothers and sisters, this is
Eastertide, the time of year when we continue to celebrate the resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So why was Jesus raised from the dead? Listen as the
great historian Eusebius explains the reason to the emperor Constantine upon
the 30th anniversary of Constantine’s reign:

Suppose one desired to show us that a vessel could
resist the force of fire; how could he better prove the fact than by casting it
into the furnace and thence withdrawing it entire and unconsumed? Even so the
Word of God, who is the source of life to all, desiring to prove the triumph
over death of that body which he had assumed for man’s salvation… pursued a
course consistent with this object. …delivering [his body] up to death in proof
of its mortal nature, he soon redeemed it from death, to demonstrate the
immortality of the body accomplished by His Divine power and the powerlessness
of death.

Even as Jack proved his beans
were magic by planting them, Jesus demonstrated the immortality of the body by dying
and rising from the dead. With this difference: Jack and his beans are a mere
fairy tale but Jesus’ death and resurrection are the fairy tale come true –
they really happened.

Brothers and sisters – Christ
is risen! Let us rejoice! Death no longer has the final word. The sting of
death has been broken; the power of the grave has been shattered. Hades has
given up his captives and we can now rejoice in the power of God and face death
as a defeated foe. There is no cause for fear – if we are trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ and in His power over sin and death, then we need not fear or be
afraid. God our own God will deliver us and rescue us.

And so reminded that our Lord
Jesus died and rose again to teach us to live without fear of death, let us
kneel and confess that we have often been overcome by our fears instead.